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LE

One party moving rapidly in bar-code identification is the Federal Government. Automatic I.D. News, April 1991, says, (p.46) "Everything that is being used in the military system has been-or will be-marked with a bar code. . . EVEN DOWN TO INDIVIDUAL SOLDIERS. . . EVERYONE GETS A BAR CODE."

At least 15 high schools in New York City are participating in a pilot program using bar- coded identification and scanners to "keep careful tabs on the students"

Esquire magazine of March 1990, (p.89) asked the obvious question, ". . .will we all be tagged in the end?"

In 1935, the Social Security program was enacted as a simple retirement system to be funded by payroll contributions. But in 1974, the Senate Finance Committee voted to issue a Social Security card to every child entering the first grade. Time magazine of March 13, 1972, commenting on the action said, (p.16) "Such a system would further enable the Government to amass information on citizens and STORE IT IN A CENTRAL COMPUTER UNDER A SINGLE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER." Then in 1989, a law was passed that every child, over two-years of age, must have a Social Security number to qualify as a dependent on tax returns. Now a program has been implemented, that when the baby is born, the hospital will automatically apply for the social security number! The name of the program â ENUMERATION AT BIRTH! To Enumerate means to "ASSIGN A NUMBER!"

LE

2 It would be the biggest computer project ever attempted by the government. We all know how good they are at large scale IT projects.

3 By the time they figure out the project's affirmative diversity action policy we'll all be dead and gone. (e.g. should trannies be tagged as male or female. That alone should keep them occupied until the next change of government).

We have a better chance of seeing England lift the World Cup than of ever carrying an ID card.

Swinger

With the main opposition parties lining up to cancel the whole project, should they gain the power in Parliament, this administration would be Barking to continue with it - what a waste of taxpayers (not their's) money; how irresponsible!

MIA

LE

LONDON (Reuters) - The plan to bring in national identity cards in the world's most ambitious biometric scheme of its kind will cost 5.4 billion pounds over the next 10 years, the government announced on Monday.

The government wants to bring in compulsory ID cards carrying fingerprint, iris and face-recognition technology, arguing they are vital to fight terrorism, serious organised crime and illegal immigration.

However the cards, which will involve one of the world's largest IT schemes, have provoked much criticism, with opponents saying they will infringe on civil rights and be a costly, ineffective flop.

Recent reports suggested that problems with the technology could jeopardise the entire project or a least the timing of its introduction, but Home Office Minister Liam Byrne confirmed on Monday the cards would be rolled out as planned from 2008.

In a report to parliament, he also revealed that the total cost of the scheme, including its set-up and operational charges, was estimated to be 5.4 billion pounds for the decade from 2006 to 2016.

"ID cards will give us a powerful tool to combat identity fraud which underpins organised crime, terrorism and abuse of the immigration system," Byrne said in a statement which focussed on how the cards would help in tackling illegal workers.

Under the plans, Britons applying for or renewing passports after 2008 would be given an ID card and their biometric details would be put on a national register.

It would see Britons issued with ID cards for the first time since they were abolished after World War Two.

ID cards are used in about a dozen European Union countries but are not always compulsory and do not carry as much data as those planned for Britain.

LE

Why not issue a smaller copy of your passport photo page when a new (biometric) passport is issued? This credit card sized solution fits into a wallet & seems to me to be the easiest way of addressing the issue.

LE

LE

Why not issue a smaller copy of your passport photo page when a new (biometric) passport is issued? This credit card sized solution fits into a wallet & seems to me to be the easiest way of addressing the issue.

I believe the problem is not the card itself, it's the database that supports it. As you say, issuing a card with basic identity details is no more difficult than issuing a passport. Creating a secure database to hold detailed, personal information on every UK citizen would be a huge undertaking.

LE

LE

The good news is that all the prison cells are full so they won't have any room for those of us who chop it in two and post it back to them.

I have yet to see one single good reason for having these things that cannot already be dealy with more adequately via existing legislation and procedures that the Government are already failing to enforce. properly.

LE

The quoted figure for the cost of this card, is that the cost to the government or will it be funded completely by us paying for the privalige of having our privacy invaded and our freedoms put at risk?

LE

The quoted figure for the cost of this card, is that the cost to the government or will it be funded completely by us paying for the privalige of having our privacy invaded and our freedoms put at risk?

LE

The quoted figure for the cost of this card, is that the cost to the government or will it be funded completely by us paying for the privalige of having our privacy invaded and our freedoms put at risk?

Take the scheme to its full application (dons foil hat) and your card will link to: medical records (if the NHS computer system ever works..!), criminal records/cautions/anything the Home Office feel like, credit reference agencies, electoral roll, DVLA, the proposed GPS 'black box' for new vehicles circa 2008-2010, anti- Govt comments made on suss websites, which type of online porn preferred and what you bought at Tesco that week. (Removes hat).

Most of the above exist as seperate systems already, but would require a supercomputer the size of Barnsley for it all to link together and work the way that the crop circle believers think it will.

HO seem to think that the following will happen: someone suspicious (maybe even from somewhere hot?!?) gets pulled. ID Card goes through reader.

"Ahh yes Mr (insert stereotype). I see that you are likely to be actively plotting to destroy the state"

"It's a fair cop, guvnor"

Yeah right. (a) convo would be more like "how the feck does this reader thing work....ahh no it's knacked, that's the third one this week (lowest bidder, remember..)" (b) someone with a heavy bag with the proverbial lit fuse sizzling away isn't going to stop to have his card looked at by plod...

So we're going to get something that doesn't seem to have a definite point except keeping the Daily Mail readers happy, will be dragging it's data from existing databases that are already corrupted (prove your identity to get an identity card? please bring driving licence, a recent utility bill, passport and note signed by your Mum and the Pope), will be hyper expensive, will automatically go ten times over budget and ten years over schedule, and the profit will no doubt go to a Septic IT contractor (EDS anyone?). Deep breath.

It is incredibly easy to fake or hijack someone else's ID (ten minutes for a driving licence as no-one ever checks the UV section) as we have traditionally trusted that people are who they say you are in this society.

The only winners will be those that don't consider themselves part of that society (NOT a go at our more beardy citizens before anyone starts: can you imagine dole bludging chav lowlife shelling out? Nah - it'll be free to anyone with third generation unemployment, 17 illegitimite sprogs and a pitbull called Bob), HMG in Big Brother mode who would probably make a pigs breakfast of whatever intelligence was collected because the server would have crashed, smug Mittel-Englanders who actually believe that "those with nothing to hide...", and the profiteering IT bods.